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Elliot Page on how the pandemic and top surgery helped him become his true self: the Umbrella Academy actor says time alone after his divorce helped him to become ‘fully who I am’

Elliot Page has opened up about his experience of coming out as transgender to Time magazine. Photos: @Time/Twitter, @elliotpage/Instagram
Elliot Page has opened up about his experience of coming out as transgender to Time magazine. Photos: @Time/Twitter, @elliotpage/Instagram
LGBTQ

  • In a new interview with Time magazine, Elliot Page takes a deep dive into his gender reality, including why he was so drawn to his role in the Netflix show
  • He came out as transgender late last year on social media, telling the LGBT community ‘I see you’

A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, Elliot Page is reflecting on how the lockdown helped him to emerge as his authentic self.

Isolation gave the actor, who came forward as transgender in December, the time and space to wrangle his gender identity, he told Time magazine in an interview published Tuesday, March 16. Page and then-wife Emma Portner had separated over the summer and filed for divorce earlier this year.

The more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive
Elliot Page
The cover image of Time with Elliot Page. Photo: @Time/Twitter
The cover image of Time with Elliot Page. Photo: @Time/Twitter
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“I had a lot of time on my own to really focus on things that I think, in so many ways, unconsciously, I was avoiding,” said the 34-year-old star of The Umbrella Academy, who uses he and they pronouns.

Appearing on the cover of Time with the headline “I’m fully who I am,” Page said he had questioned his gender since he was a small child, bristling at being told to play on the girls’ soccer team and decrying the “total hell” that was puberty. Left on his own this past year, he said he took inspiration from trans icons and trans writers before making the decision to tell the world his gender reality.

“What I was anticipating was a lot of support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia,” the actor said of the decision to release a statement declaring he is transgender. “That’s essentially what happened.”

At the time of the post, Page said, he was in Toronto recovering from breast removal surgery – though he noted that being trans isn’t all about going under the knife, and said many trans people either can’t afford or don’t want to make those changes.

But Page said that for him breast removal “completely transformed my life”, reclaiming all the energy he’d spent for years being uncomfortable in his body. It was another step in an initial transition that started with his 2014 declaration that he was gay.